I daresay you know, like everybody else, that once, many years ago, I was guilty of an indiscretion.

Henrik Ibsen -- A Doll’s House

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She had said, in effect, that she found such a thing impossible to believe, that if it were true he had merely committed a childish indiscretion— and probably to show off.

F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Winter Dreams

Well, I have been indiscreet, formerly; but I think I have got over it.

Henry James -- Washington Square

And now tell me, what makes you leave your brilliant Vienna for our gloomy London—or perhaps the question is indiscreet?

Oscar Wilde -- An Ideal Husband

youthful indiscretion

J.D. Robb -- Glory in Death

Wren discreetly took a sip of his wine.

Sara Shepard -- Pretty Little Liars

Lord Backwater tells me that I may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion.

Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

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He is a man of high discretion.

Geoffrey Chaucer -- The Canterbury Tales

Be not too tame neither; but let your own discretion be your tutor:

William Shakespeare -- Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

old age and discretion are to be respected

C.S. Lewis -- The Horse and His Boy

That is the way such things are discreetly handled to keep a young woman from making a tragic mistake!

Tennessee Williams -- The Glass Menagerie

you should be ruled and led by some discretion, that discerns your state better than you yourself.

William Shakespeare -- King Lear

I think I impressed him how important it is to handle this thing discreetly.

Tennessee Williams -- A Streetcar Named Desire

He discovered Isabelle to be discreetly and aggravatingly unsentimental in letters,

F. Scott Fitzgerald -- This Side of Paradise

However much I paid Jamaican servants I would never buy discretion. I’d be gossiped about, sung about...

Jean Rhys -- Wide Sargasso Sea

Nicole has a full-length locker in a discreet, fresh-smelling alcove because she’s on the soccer team.

Laurie Halse Anderson -- Speak

"This is no time for books," she will scold, hastily noting the volume open against the covers, unaware, as her son has been all these years, that her husband dwells discreetly, silently, patiently, within its pages.

Jhumpa Lahiri -- The Namesake

He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction.

O. Henry -- The Gift of the Maji

As I suspected, he relies on the well respected and discreet Swiss.

J.D. Robb -- Naked in Death

This involved shelling the seeds in her mouth with skillful discretion.

Gish Jen -- Typical American

old folks, you know, have discretion, as they say, and know the world.

William Shakespeare -- The Merry Wives of Windsor

Sylvia left the cow to whatever sad fate might await her, and stepped discreetly aside into the bushes, but she was just too late.

Sarah Jewett -- A White Heron

Well . . . Martha . . . in her indiscreet way ... told you all about my first novel . . . my . . . memory book . . . which I’d sort of preferred she hadn’t, but hell, that’s blood under the bridge.

Edward Albee -- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

And when I learned who she was, being delighted with her beauty and discretion, I became inflamed with love and it appeared to me that the sun would be dark to me if I did not marry her at once.

C.S. Lewis -- The Horse and His Boy

Well, every time the Governor’s indiscreet it hits the tabloids, but beyond that, nothing."

Harper Lee -- Go Set a Watchman

Helene’s not a quick tumble or a night’s indiscretion.

Sabaa Tahir -- An Ember in the Ashes

Risa wonders whether or not there’s a discreet way to check without Alexis seeing, but realizes there isn’t.

Neal Shusterman -- Unwind

—rather than treating the whole marriage campaign like a military maneuver, a series of battles to be won or lost based on flounced dresses, tasteful décolletage and discreet flirting (but not too much!

Margaret Peterson Haddix -- Uprising

The horrifying thing was, if the sex had been outrageously mindblowing, that might have been my sole indiscretion.

Gillian Flynn -- Gone Girl

My mother had pointed them out to me after services, eyeing them discreetly as they hurried home.

Nicholas Sparks -- The Longest Ride

Maxon discreetly moved his eyes my way.

Kiera Cass -- The One

For someone who prided herself on being so close to the royal family, she really should have learned a lesson or two in discretion by now.

Kiera Cass -- The Heir

Some discreet accommodation had been made for their tastes, and they mingled among the others holding sleek metal flutes, plucked from the champagne table, whose opacity hid the liquid inside.

Cassandra Clare -- City of Heavenly Fire

She yelled up to him, as discreetly as she could, to no avail.

Dave Eggers -- The Circle

Despite her reserve and discretion, she had a dry but lively sense of humor and treated me to her sharp, sidelong observations on our daily life in B Dorm: "You in the Ghetto novv, bunkie!"

Piper Kerman -- Orange Is the New Black

Some states also initiated mandatory transfer rules, which took away any discretion from prosecutors and judges over whether a child should be kept in the juvenile system.

Bryan Stevenson -- Just Mercy

Discretion seemed the better part of valor, so I stretched my weary muscles and sprinted hard to bypass the Eskimos.

Farley Mowat -- Never Cry Wolf

I washed up a little, then moved a discreet distance away and listened to her sing several rather racy songs.

Patrick Rothfuss -- The Name of the Wind

As noted, I did this discreetly.

Chang-rae Lee -- A Gesture Life

The thin muscle on the upper arms, the bones and veins at the wrist that almost become part of the discreet bangle, all disappearing into the river of bright sari or faded cotton print.

Michael Ondaatje -- Running in the Family

Raffe fades into the growing crowd, discreetly buttoning up his shirt.

Susan Ee -- Angelfall

I had been doing this for about ten minutes when the discreet hum of the motorized wheelchair alerted me to Will’s arrival.

Jojo Moyes -- Me Before You

Christina was learning from Daisy how to be discreet.

Judy Blume -- In the Unlikely Event

He nodded discreetly toward a distant table.

Trenton Lee Stewart -- The Mysterious Benedict Society

She tilted her chin so that one plume swept gracefully against her cheek, discreetly curled and uncurled her numb toes inside the kid slippers, and set herself to endure.